In medical facilities throughout the world, medical personnel routinely inject patients intravenously, subcutaneously or intramuscularly with various fluids, such as saline or medications. Typically they use disposable injecting devices, such as syringes, catheters, or any other suitable devices, which have needles with sharp tips. The needles of these medical devices, also known in the industry as "sharps", are inserted during their use through the patient's skin. As a result, the needles are exposed to the patient's body fluids, such as blood.
Due to privacy laws as well as due to staggering number of times these needle insertions or injections are carried out throughout the world, a patient's medical history may not be readily available to medical personnel prior to administering these injections. Thus, infections from contact with unsanitary or otherwise infected needles have long posed danger to medical personnel handling such equipment. Furthermore, accidental or inadvertent contact with sharp tips of used needles or cannulae is particularly hazardous when medical personnel are involved in handling needles contaminated with blood or body fluids infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), or any other highly infectious agents, such as harmful bacteria, herpes virus, hepatitis virus, and the like.
Several methods and devices have been disclosed for protection from infected needles. For example, Kennedy et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,028 disclose a dispenser for dispensing a needle cover provided with gripping surfaces for securing a used syringe body after its insertion in the needle cover.
McNeil et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,229 disclose a dispenser containing a plurality of two-piece covers, which consist of a shaft and a metal piece bent back on itself.
Kulli in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,241 provides a protective guard that rides on the shaft of a needle and is slid forward after the use of the needle.
Janjua et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,653 disclose a disposable needle having a pivotable top attached to the needle hub.
Pedicano et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,336 disclose a one-piece disposable needle sheath having a cone-shaped opening for ease of insertion of a used needle still attached to the syringe into the sheath and retaining means that grip the used needle during the detachment of the syringe attached to the used needle. The cone-shaped opening may be provided with a top to fully enclose the used needle.
Reenstierna in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,323 discloses two closed-ended, coaxially-positioned, elongated members where a pliable outer member includes a plurality of rigid projections that are aligned with openings on an inner member that houses the needle. After the use, the needle is reinserted into the inner member and the outer member is hit against a dense object, such as a table, whereby the projections on the outer pliable member push through the openings on the inner member to either bend or break the needle disposed therein.
Chen in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,320 discloses a syringe assembly having the needle mounted inside a needle top provided with a hammer body at the end. The user reinserts the needle after its use in the needle top, which is then hit against an object to bend the needle point.
Kohl et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,178 disclose a device that destroys a used needle by first deforming to seal and then burning the needle by the passage of an electrical current through the needle.
Freundlich et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,320 disclose a one-piece unsheathing and resheathing device into which a syringe having a conventional sheath thereon, is inserted through a conical opening for ease of insertion. A pivotable cam is actuated to hold the sheath while the syringe having a needle thereon, is removed and used. The used needle is then reinserted into the sheath still held in the device and the pivotable cam is then reactuated to release the sheath, so that the re sheathed syringe can be safely removed.
Finally, Haber et al. in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,507 disclose a one-piece syringe system in which, after its use, a hinged frame containing the syringe is pivoted back upon itself and latched together to capture the needle between the front and the back part of the frame.
However, there exists a need for a needle-capping device, which is suited for capping needles of various sizes, and which is environmentally safe and easy to use.